The Ultimate La Brea Tar Pits Quiz

Over the years, archaeologists have excavated copious amounts of important fossils from the La Brea Tar Pits, also known as Rancho La Brea. How knowledgeable are you about this prehistoric place of many a mammoth's demise?

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Question 1 of 20

Where are the La Brea Tar Pits located?

Mexico City

Los Angeles

The La Brea Tar Pits are situated in the heart of Los Angeles. You can find them in Hancock Park, adjacent to the Miracle Mile.

San Diego

Question 2 of 20

How old are the majority of the Ice Age fossils found in the La Brea Tar Pits?

Less than 10,000 years old

10,000 to 40,000 years old

The fossils from the last Ice Age that have been excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits range from around 10,000 to 40,000 years old. Animals still occasionally become entrapped in the pits, however, especially when the weather is warm.

Older than 40,000 years old

Question 3 of 20

How many fossilized bones have been found in the tar pits?

Less than 100,000

About 500,000

More than 1,000,000

More than 1 million fossilized bones have been pulled from the tar pits, along with the remains of about 150 species of plants and 230 species of invertebrates. All told, the museum collection currently contains more than 3 million specimens, although ongoing excavations constantly push that number higher.

Question 4 of 20

What species fell prey to the tar pits most frequently?

Dire wolves

Dire wolves are the most commonly recovered species of large mammal from the tar pits. Currently, the remains of several thousand dire wolves are included in the museum's collection.

Ground sloths

Woolly mammoths

Question 5 of 20

What species came in second?

Saber-toothed cats

Saber-toothed cats are the second-most-common species to come out of the ground in La Brea. Currently about 2,000 individual specimens have been unearthed.

Short-faced bears

Dwarf pronghorns

Question 6 of 20

Where does the tar in the pits come from?

The Salt Lake Oil Field

The tar in the La Brea Tar Pits comes up from a nearby petroleum reservoir known as the Salt Lake Oil Field, and it's technically asphalt, not tar. As the petroleum seeps up along fault lines and layers of porous rocks, lighter components of the petroleum evaporate, leaving the asphalt behind.

The Buena Vista Oil Field

The Long Beach Oil Field

Question 7 of 20

Why do animals get trapped in the tar pits?

Prey often get trapped because the tar pits are concealed from the animals' sight.

Predators are often drawn by trapped prey and get trapped themselves.

Both

It's commonly believed that a vicious cycle has played out at the pits over the millennia. The tar pits are often concealed by water, leaves, twigs and other debris, so it's easy for prey animals to accidently become ensnared. Predators and scavengers would have frequently been lured in by the promise of an easy meal, only to find themselves trapped in turn.

Question 8 of 20

Couldn't the animals free themselves?

Of course, they just didn't know how.

Nope, asphalt is too powerful an adhesive.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Little animals, plants and other organisms would have stood the smallest chance of escaping, as well as larger animals who were injured or ill. As for the others, considerations such as the depth of the tar and the temperature of the air would have been mitigating factors. Deeper tar and warmer temperatures would have made the sticky asphalt much harder to escape from.

Question 9 of 20

How often did large animals get caught in the tar pits?

It happened all the time

It was fairly rare

Considering how many fossils have been found at La Brea, it might seem like a death trap sucking in living creatures left and right. But considering the pits were at peak activity for some 30,000 years, they had a lot of time to end up filled with fossils. If a large mammal was trapped once every 10 years, for example, and it lured nine more large mammals in with it, that would cover the current number of specimens uncovered.

It was super uncommon

Question 10 of 20

What's Project 23?

Project 23 is the excavation of the 23rd pit dug at Rancho La Brea.

Project 23 involves the study of 23 boxes of remains pulled whole from the ground.

Project 23 is an excavation assignment that kicked off in 2008 after new fossil deposits were found during the construction of a nearby underground parking garage. Instead of holding up construction for the duration of the lengthy dig, the deposits discovered in 2006 were carefully boxed up as-is into 23 separate boxes, so paleontologists could sift through the contents at their own pace. A crane lifted each box to a waiting truck, which then transported them to their new home in Hancock Park.

Project 23 is the name for the collaboration of 23 research facilities for work at La Brea.

Question 11 of 20

How much did the heaviest box weigh?

About 50,000 pounds (or around 23,000 kilograms)

About 100,000 pounds (or around 45,000 kilograms)

About 125,000 pounds (or around 55,000 kilograms)

The heaviest of the boxes weighed in at a little shy of 125,000 pounds (which is about 55,000 kilograms). They ranged in size from a work bench to a delivery truck.

Question 12 of 20

How long did the process take?

About 3 months

The whole process of unearthing the deposits for excavation in Project 23, and preparing them for the move, only took about three-and-a-half months.

About 7 months

About 12 months

Question 13 of 20

What's one example of a unique find that's come out of Project 23?

Excavators aren't finding any fossilized invertebrates or plants mixed in with the remains of larger mammals.

Excavators are finding lower amounts of pit wear than is normally present in the fossils found at La Brea.

Excavators are actually finding both more pit wear and more fossilized forms of simple life than usual, at least in some of the boxes of deposits.

Pit wear (which comes from bones rubbing against each other) has been noticed more in some of the Project 23 deposits than is usually expected. On top of that, invertebrate and plants fossils are being found in greater concentrations, too.

Question 14 of 20

What's so special about the specimen nicknamed Zed, discovered during the course of Project 23?

Zed is a Columbian mammoth who was unearthed almost completely intact, including his full pair of tusks -- an occurrence that has never happened before at La Brea.

Zed is a Columbian mammoth discovered during the course of Project 23. Apart from being remarkably intact and sporting the most well-preserved set of mammoth tusks found to date at La Brea, he's also the biggest mammoth ever unearthed there.

Zed is a specimen of a previously unknown species, believed to be a missing link between the western camel to the western horse.

Zed is a fossilized female dire wolf, pregnant at the time of her demise -- a state that has helped increase understanding of how pups were carried in the womb.

Question 15 of 20

How many fossils is Project 23 expected to add to the La Brea collection?

Project 23 is expected to increase the collection by 100,000 specimens of all shapes and sizes.

Project 23 is expected to increase the collection by a million specimens.

Project 23 is expected to double the number of specimens pulled from the tar pits to date.

Project 23, which is drawing specimens from 16 new deposit sites, is expected to increase the museum's collection two-fold.

Question 16 of 20

What is the asphalt in the tar pits comprised of?

Ancient marine life

The asphalt in the pits was formed over millions of years when the area now known as Rancho La Brea was submerged under the Pacific Ocean. Ancient marine life and sediments layered the ocean floor and were eventually converted into petroleum, also called crude oil.

Ancient terrestrial life

Neither

Question 17 of 20

What causes the tar pits to bubble?

Bacteria burp up methane as a byproduct after consuming petroleum.

Despite the extreme conditions -- little-to-no air or water, toxic chemicals and hard-to-crack hydrocarbons -- bacteria in the asphalt of the tar pits are able to work as a community, and some expel methane to the surface as bubbles.

Fossils deteriorate and methane is released in the process.

Magma is mixed in with the petroleum and the methane bubbles originate there.

Question 18 of 20

Who donated the Rancho La Brea lands to Los Angeles County for scientific study and preservation?

George C. Page

George Allan Hancock

George Allan Hancock inherited the land where his namesake 23-acre park is located to this day.

William S. Hart

Question 19 of 20

Who donated the money for the museum dedicated to the La Brea Tar Pits?

George C. Page

The money for the actual facilities in Hancock Park was donated by George C. Page. The George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries opened in 1977.

George Allan Hancock

William S. Hart

Question 20 of 20

How many visitors did the museum receive in its first 10 years?

2 million

5 million

In its first 10 years of operation, the Page Museum received about 5 million visitors, eager to see the exhibits of mammoths, dire wolves and more.